How big should I be playing?

TreC

I've been playing online for only a week now. I've played for money before but only with friends.
I started online with party poker for the free chips. I put my $100 in and turned it into about $180. So I've pulled out my original $100. What tables can I realistically play with $80. I've mostly just played the $.50/$1 and $1/$2 tables. Can I go higher or should I build up some more money?

Tilter

you gotta stick to the 0.50/1, your bankroll doesn't really support playing much higher unless you feel like you will win for sure, because a couple bad beats at say 2/4 and you will have your bankroll chopped in half

ScottyZ

If you are considering $80 as your entire *bankroll* (i.e. all the money you'll ever play poker with) then you should theoretically only play (limit) games where the big bet is about 25 cents. That is, something like 5 cent - 10 cent limit poker or below.

On the other hand, if your intention is to possibly buy more chips if you happen to lose the $80 you have now, then you need to get a better estimate of what your bankroll is. The ideal thing to do is to set aside a certain amount of money right now which is the money you intend to play poker with. If that is not practical, you can still estimate an approximate bankroll in some other way. Perhaps ask yourself something like, "What's the most money I am willing to spend on poker this year?" In other words, what is the maximum net cummulative loss you are willing to take at poker this year?

Don't make the mistake of considering the $80 as merely a *buy-in*. An $80 buy-in will allow you to play fine in $0.50-$1, and probably even $1-$2. However, pretty much by definition of the word buy-in, you have a very realistic chance of losing your entire buy-in in a *single* session.

In short, if you play with $80 in a $0.50-$1 game, you have a reasonable chance of losing the entire $80 in one or two sessions. If you're okay with that, then go ahead and play that limit.

Think about what your bankroll is. Remember, a bankroll is the entire pool of money with which you will play poker for a long period of time (theoretically your entire poker career, but certainly at least one year or more).

I know I'm belaboring the definition of bankroll, but I have seen a *lot* of players (and not just beginners) who don't even know that a bankroll and a buy-in are different things, let alone the definition of each.

Note: a generally accepted rough estimate of an appropriate bankroll size for limit games is 300 times the big bet.

ScottyZ

RoyalFlush

Why not try the PL or NL tournaments? Best bang for your buck.
Try the $5+1 or $10+1 tournaments.

The_Gamblar

a trick that i use is 25x the big blind in limit play.. i read that off of an article by annie duke.. and i have stuck to that amount everytime i enter a table... works fine for me..

HellmuthFan

I believe that Annie Duke says 30x the big blind.

The_Gamblar

i believe that ur wrong

Jay

Haha

HellmuthFan

The 30-bet Rule
by Annie Duke

"When I first started playing poker, my big brother gave me a great piece of advice. He told me to never lose more than 30 big bets in a game, give or take. That means I shouldn't lose more than $180 in a $3-$6 game, $600 in a $10-$20 game and so on."

http://www.ultimatebet.com/team-ub/article.html?articleID=6&author=duke

I believe you are the one who is wrong 8)

lol it's even called the "30-bet rule"

ScottyZ

Hmmm... it appears that everyone is now talking about the correct size of a buy-in. (I like 50 big blinds myself.)

However, just to be clear, I think this has nothing at all to do with TreC's original question. I just don't want TreC to get confused by the fact that the thread has gone off topic. Specifically, TreC should *not* be using a 30 bet rule to determine what limit he should play; first, TreC's poker bankroll must be estimated.

ScottyZ

HellmuthFan

I never said he should use the 30 bet rule Scotty. I was only correcting the post above about what Annie Duke says. 8)

ScottyZ

HellmuthFan wrote:

I never said he should use the 30 bet rule Scotty. I was only correcting the post above about what Annie Duke says. 8)

Yes, I know that. But I realize that anyone who is not reading carefully might interpret it that way.

ScottyZ

ScottyZ

Tilter wrote:

you gotta stick to the 0.50/1, your bankroll doesn't really support playing much higher

I'm not sure we know what TreC's bankroll is with the information provided.

ScottyZ

HellmuthFan

ScottyZ wrote:

I'm not sure we know what TreC's bankroll is with the information provided.

ScottyZ

Doesn't he say he has $80 to play with?

CanadaKev

1/2 is too big of a game for 80 buks.

whoever said 5+1 tourneys are best bang for your buck needs some help, 20% fee for online sitngo makes those tables -EV in the long run.

ScottyZ

HellmuthFan wrote:

ScottyZ wrote:

I'm not sure we know what TreC's bankroll is with the information provided.

ScottyZ

Doesn't he say he has $80 to play with?

TreC seems to have $80 in a particular online poker account right now.

It's unclear to me what TreC bankroll is. As I discussed in my first post in this thread, either:

1. $80 actually is TreC's entire poker bankroll, which means that, over the next few years, TreC never intends to put any more money than that into playing poker.

or

2. TreC might assign more money than the $80 account right now to be used for playing poker.

In case #1, TreC should probably stick to $0.05-$0.10 limits and below.

In case #2, TreC's bankroll is actually higher than $80 (possibly much higher), and we need a better estimate of the bankroll in order to make intelligent suggestions on which limits are appropriate.

ScottyZ

TreC

I am up to just under $100 now. I am prepared to play with $200 but no more than that. I played a couple nights on a 1/2 table and pretty much broke even. I can see how you can lose quite a bit of money on a table like that not having too much money. So right now I'll just stick to the .5/1 table.

Thanks for you advice

ScottyZ

I am prepared to play with $200 but no more than that.

The appropriate limit for a $200 bankroll is would be roughly $0.25-$0.50 or less.

Playing $0.50-$1 is playing a little bit to high already. Don't even consider playing $1-$2.

ScottyZ

TreC

ScottyZ wrote:

Don't even consider playing $1-$2.

ScottyZ

Played it twice and I can see why you say that. I came out being up $1.50. I could have easily been down $25, but I caught a nice hand and left a couple hands after I won it.

Thanks again for the advice

HellmuthFan

I agree $.25-$.50 is right...maybe $.50-$1 it your feeling lucky